How does digitization and the modern methods of setting goals affect the company's processes? Why is it important to have its values and to form a community of like-minded people from employees for its sustainable development? We talked about these and other issues with Oleg Rog – Digital Marketing Manager of Decathlon Ukraine.

What Is the Decathlon Today?

Decathlon is an international French retailer of clothing and accessories for over seventy sports. In particular, Decathlon Ukraine represents two lines of business:

1. Retail business. These are two stores: Decathlon Pochayna and Decathlon Bilichi in Kyiv, as well as an online store.
2. Production. In Ukraine, products are manufactured under the brands of Decathlon according to our developments and under our control (goalkeeper gloves for football, cross-country skis, hockey sticks, and upper part of hiking shoes). These products are delivered to Decathlon stores around the world, including Decathlon Ukraine.

Decathlon Ukraine is actively developing. We entered the market on March 23, 2019 (this is the opening of the first store date), and today we already employ over a hundred specialists.

In total, Decathlon has more than 1,600 stores and 96,000 employees in more than 60 countries. For 2019, its sales amounted to more than 12 billion euros.

Decathlon Ukraine

What Is Helping Decathlon Grow Rapidly in Your Opinion?

Decathlon has its corporate values that are relevant in all countries. Colleagues adhere to the transparency approach, and the communication in the company is quite open.

Information within the company is publicly available. Employees have their own KPIs (numerical performance indicators), and missions (like additional projects). In the marketing department of the eCommerce department, we also work with OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). If necessary, Decathlon employees can become familiar not only with the general goals of the company but also with the goals of other colleagues. It helps everyone to understand where we are going.

In addition to transparency, sports culture is also important. All our employees, regardless of their specialty and Decathlon location, regularly play sports. These are also the values of the company. For example, we have fans of Ultimate (a team non-contact sports game using a flying disc "frisbee"): from beginners to participants in European championships. Another employee of ours is a candidate for a master of sports in badminton. Sport is, first of all, the value of the company that unites our colleagues around the world.

Decathlon Ukraine

There is practically no hierarchy in Decathlon Ukraine. We have heads of departments, team leaders, but in general, departments are distinguished that deal with their projects according to their KPIs. Each employee can take the initiative in any project, and everyone is equally focused on the result.

I would also like to note that our company is one of the first in Ukraine to introduce an opportunity for employees to buy their shares. Decathlon is constantly scaling and growing, so this is a good opportunity for employees to get more involved in the company affairs.

I believe these approaches help us grow faster and adapt to changes.

Tell Us About the Objectives and Key Results Methodology

We have been implementing a goal setting and OKR planning method in the eCommerce department lately. So far, individual employees are working on it, but in 2021 we plan to use it for the entire department. The essence of the method is to determine several main tasks for a person, the achievement of which will bring the greatest result most effectively both to him as a specialist and to the project. The method has been used by various corporations for a long time.

Decathlon Ukraine

In early September 2020, Decathlon had a digital strategy workshop among the eCommerce, Marketing, and Top Management departments. It outlined the main steps to achieve the company's goals in online business. Strategies were thought out individually for each direction and, accordingly, for employees. Also, KPIs and OKRs were determined for employees.

What Tools Do You Implement as Part of the Company Digitization?

Now the company is actively switching to electronic document management (EDM). For example, we work without printing, we are gradually introducing EDM services to minimize time. Colleagues perform most of their tasks using Google products (for example, Google Docs, Google Drive, etc.). Everything is stored in the cloud.

Our eCommerce department works according to the SCRUM methodology: we arrange two-week sprints. We fix all tasks in Jira, which is convenient and flexible enough for teams to work. It is also easy to record all outsourced contractor costs.

Thanks to all this, now, under quarantine conditions, we do not have an urgent need to go to the office, only for the team synergy.

Tell Us About Your Transition to Electronic Trading as the Part of Digitization

Since we are an international company and operate according to procedures and guides, we have our internal rules for tenders organizing.

Previously, when it was necessary to hold a tender among contractors, Decathlon organized committees with responsible persons. Now we have come to a more flexible approach – we use a platform for tenders that will be as open and transparent as possible, and all the criteria are obvious to every participant.

The transition to the online platform was initiated by the legal department of the company. We looked at different platforms but decided to focus on SmartTender.

Our first tender was to find a new performance marketing contractor (an agency that deals with contextual advertising). At that time, we already had an active partner with whom we worked for a year. However, we have reviewed our current terms and conditions and successfully used the SmartTender capabilities for these purposes.

Decathlon Ukraine

Have You Encountered any Difficulties During the Working with SmartTender?

I already had experience working with other sites. And since I was organizing the tender, no difficulties arose. As a user, I note that the site's functionality is very wide, and there are many tools available for various tasks. We did not use all the functionality, since there was no need for it, but it's great that there are such options.

Not only existing agencies but also new potential participants were invited to the PPC (Pay Per Click) tender. Four agencies were in the final. According to our rules, all of them had to prepare miscalculations of media plans, presentations, and then defend the strategy they saw the implementation of their media plan.

The winner selection was carried out using SmartTender according to certain criteria specified in the conditions of the tender. Each criterion had its weight, and our team evaluated the participants according to them. In this format, the site became the tool using which all agencies on equal terms uploaded their proposals for the tender. Everything happened within a specific deadline and was recorded.

Also, we had video conferences with the participants, where we could immediately discuss all issues. Of course, if we just wanted to purchase stationery, a regular electronic tender would be enough. But for the presentation of media plans, in our case, the protection was required. Before quarantine, it would have taken place in the format of a face-to-face meeting, and now – via video link. The fact is that it is important for me as a decision-maker, to understand which team will work on our project. The presentation may be perfect, but completely different specialists may be the executors of our tasks. Therefore, to select contractors for marketing services, it is important to use a combination of both an electronic platform and video conferences with the team that will directly work on your project.

As a result, we have chosen the agency we continue to work with pleasure.

Do You Plan to Organize Electronic Tenders Again?

I cannot answer for the whole company, but our department certainly has such a need. PPC, SEO are two key areas in terms of budget. Therefore, in the future, we plan to use SmartTender tools to find partners during a tender again.

At the moment, we are defining the criteria based on which we will conduct tenders: we decide which persons will be involved, how much the budget will be, etc. I can say for sure that next time we will add more time for the participants so they can easily understand the site interface, register their account, etc. This is important to ensure that everyone is in the same condition.

I wish everyone interesting digital projects, open tenders, and high conversion rates in advertising campaigns!